81-Year-Old Fasts at the W.Va. Capitol to Abolish Mountaintop Removal

photograph (c) antrim caskey 2009

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CHARLESTON, W.Va.–Roland Micklem, 81, will begin a fast at the West Virginia State Capitol on Monday, Nov. 30. It will continue for an indeterminate period of time, and Micklem has neither set demands nor preconditions for its termination.

Micklem spent half a century as a naturalist, teacher and environmental writer. The loss of biodiversity caused by mountaintop removal is a focus of his activism.

“The loss of so many once common and beloved species has been traumatic and depressing, depressing to an extent that has resulted in a loss of enthusiasm for a field of study that had stoked my fires in bygone years,” Micklem writes in an open letter, explaining his motives for the fast, published on Climate Ground Zero’s web site.

Micklem organized and led over 30 people on the 25-mile Senior Citizen’s March to End Mountaintop Removal, which began at the state capitol on Oct. 8 and ended at the gates of Mammoth Coal in eastern Kanawha County on Oct. 12. This march followed Micklem’s participation in two acts of nonviolent civil resistance–the June 23 rally at Marsh Fork Elementary School and a blockade of the entrance to Massey Energy’s regional headquarters in Boone County on Sept. 9. At the Marsh Fork Rally, he was arrested alongside distinguished NASA climate scientist James Hansen, actress Darryl Hannah, Goldman Prize Winner Judy Bonds and dozens of concerned citizens.

His fast begins one week before a coalition of West Virginians and allies converge at the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection to demand enforcement of the Clean Water Act and an end to blasting on Coal River Mountain.

“This is a prolonged act of mourning, not only for the mountains, but for all of God’s Creation–plants, animals, nature–that has been callously exploited and abused to satisfy the selfish wants of a single species,” stated Micklem, a devout Christian.

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